Comrades
by Rodney Cromwell

Where the debut album ‘Age of Anxiety’ drew on personal demons, in his new material, current social and political tribulations inspired Rodney’s wry songs of woe. ‘Comrades’ is a robotic turbocharged rebel song for the twitter generation, inspired by recent upheavals in the UK. Sonically, it sits somewhere between Kraftwerk, Pye Corner Audio and the Best of Divine. 

The digital single also features a 12″ extended dance mix by synthwave act Vieon. Conceived in 2009 in a box room in Coventry, Vieon is the brainchild of synth wizard Matt Wild. Influenced by pioneers such as Jean-Michel Jarre and filtered through the soundscapes of 80s electronic film scores, Vieon blend the sounds of the analogue past and dystopian future with synth hooks and epic solos to create evolving, emotive, spacey electronic music.

Cromwell’s sound has been compared to the analogue electronica of Kraftwerk, Section 25 and the ‘retro futurists’ of Ghostbox Records. His miserablism and dark humour has been compared to that of The Cure and John Grant.

Rodney Cromwell’s evocative synthpop looks to the proto-electronica of the 70’s and 80’s to construct a twisted soundtrack for the post-truth world. The instrumentation of the new EP has been kept intentionally minimal with its drum sounds taken entirely from a vintage Boss DR-55 drum machine and with a self-imposed limit on the amount of hissy analogue gear used in its making. Melody and dark humour combine with simple motorik rhythms, soaring bass lines and the bleeps of retro synths, all within a lo-fi pop aesthetic.

 

Rodney Cromwell’s debut album and subsequent ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Fax Message Breakup’ EPs found crossover appeal, gaining Cromwell coverage from the likes of NME, Electronic Sound Mag, Huffington Post and Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music and on Spain’s national RNE3. At the end of 2015, Rodney Cromwell featured in 25 ‘Best of’ lists and was named ‘Most Promising New Act’ by The Electricity Club. ‘Barry Was an Arms Dealer’ featured in the 2015 Official Festive 50 on Dandelion Radio. He has performed with the likes of Marsheaux, Death & Vanilla and Steve Davis and at various festivals, including Threshold, Indietracks and Madrid Popfest.

 

The forthcoming ‘Rodney’s English Disco’ EP will be released on red vinyl 7”, on CD and digitally. The twelfth release on Happy Robots Records, it features remixes by Rémi Parson, Vieon, Pattern Language and Alice Hubble (Arthur & Martha, Mass Datura). The sleeve photo came from Lavian photographer Jelena Osmolovska, whose distinctive gritty post-Soviet fantasy aesthetic perfectly compliments the sound of the record. 

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